The front door was shut. It usually stood wide open. They went round to the back door. That was shut and locked too! The children stared at one another in surprise.
“Has Dimmy locked herself in?” they wondered. “What’s been happening?”
“All the ground-floor windows are shut too,” said Jack, who had been round looking. “But there’s one open up there - do you see it? I believe if I climb up that old pear tree there, I could wriggle along that branch and get on to the window-sill.”
“Well, be careful then,” said Peggy. “It doesn’t look very safe to me!”
Jack climbed the tree, hoisted up by Mike. He wriggled carefully along the big branch that waved near the window. The other children stood below and watched him - but a shower of little hard pears fell on their heads and they went back a few steps, laughing.
Jack got safely to the window-sill. He opened the window and jumped inside. They heard his footsteps pattering down the stairs.
Then the bolts were shot back, the key was turned, and Jack opened the door. “Come on in,” he said. “We’ll just see if Dimmy is anywhere here - but there’s not a sound in the house.”
The children hunted everywhere for Dimmy. She was gone. The house was quiet and lonely, and the children didn’t know what to do. When would Dimmy come back? Where had she gone? Where was George? Perhaps they could find him.
“Well, I vote we have something to eat,” said Jack at last. “There’s some ham in the larder - I’ve just looked - and some tomatoes too and stale bread. We can pick plums from the garden as well. Come on!”
Over the meal the children talked about what they should do. Should they stay at Peep-Hole till Dimmy came back? But suppose she didn’t come back! They didn’t feel very safe at Peep-Hole, so near the Old House, without Dimmy or George, because perhaps somebody might find out they were there and come to catch poor Paul again.